


The Many Names of Daisy Johnson

by Nocticola



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: 2x21 SOS deleted scene, 5x21 The force of gravity, Daisy's backstory, Episode: s01e19 The Only Light in the Darkness, Episode: s02e10 What They Become, Episode: s03e18 The Singularity, Episode: s04e09 Broken Promises, Gen, Post-Episode: s02e21-22 S.O.S. Parts 1-2, Pre-Canon, The Framework Universe (Marvel)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-02 23:03:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 2,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11519343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nocticola/pseuds/Nocticola
Summary: Ficlets on identityChapters:1. Birth2. Mary Sue Poots3. Skye4. Daisy Johnson5. Quake6. Framework7. Destroyer of Worlds





	1. Birth

The summer night of July 2nd in 1988 is gorgeous and hot and ends in a surprise home birth. Even though things do not go according to plan, both parents are medical professionals, so the birth mostly goes without problems. The baby girl is healthy, beautiful and alert. Both of the parents are sure she’s going to be so brilliant. She’s perfect.

Cal and Jiyaing wanted to wait until she was born to choose her name. It would be easier once they see her, know her, find out who she is before choosing a name. 

Naming ends up being surprisingly easy. Before the night is through, they have decided on the name, Daisy. Daisy Johnson. She is going to do amazing things.


	2. Mary Sue Poots

She doesn’t like her name. The other kids always make fun of it (with last name ‘Poots’, it’s not even difficult). But that is not the only reason. She doesn’t feel connected to it. The nuns don’t care about her like family and she hates their rhetoric. The name has no emotional ties to anything. Not only that, she doesn’t *feel* like a Mary, or Sue, let alone Mary Sue. She tries different ways of connecting with the name, through nicknames, but nothing works, nothing sticks. She doesn’t think the name fits the way she looks. Of course, she’s not the only kid at the orphanage with an unclear heritage, but those questions haunt her. 

Her life lacks connections. She puts heads with the nuns. Foster families are always temporary. Connecting with the other orphans is complicated. Many of them leave. All of them *want* to leave. Those who don’t, turn bitter. Everyone is competing for families. For homes. 

Even though MSP are her initials for years and years, she is left with no one to connect to the life she lives under that name. Once she’s out of St. Agnes, it’s easy to leave that life, and name, behind her. To remake herself.


	3. Skye

Once she’s out of St. Agnes, she deletes her official existence. It takes time and effort but once it’s done, MSP stops existing. It’s easier that way. She’s as free as a bird in the sky. Now, she can be whoever she wants to be. She can recreate herself. Choose her own name. She won’t have a family name, of course, but she will finally have the agency to choose who she is. To herself and to the world. Just because there’s no one to name you, doesn’t mean you can be nameless. The freedom seems a bit overwhelming. Who does she want to be?

Eventually, she names herself Skye. She likes the connection to the sky, and its apparent meanings of ‘sheltering’ and ‘scholar’. She also finds it pretty and mysterious and not heritage specific. ‘Skye’ is who she wants to be. So, that is who she’ll be.


	4. Daisy Johnson

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I got so used to being alone. And then my dad made good on his word, and for a second, I had parents. Ones who wanted me. They weren't what I'd imagined, but they were real. Not some fantasy that I drummed up, you know? I don't have parents anymore."

She had parents. She had parents who loved her and wanted to name her. Daisy. It's a nice enough name. When she first hears it, she doesn't want it. Cal is a murderer and she doesn't want anything to do with him. Her mother was murdered. 'Daisy' means nothing to her. Not then.

When she gets to Afterlife, meets Jiaying, she's still Skye. It's still her name. Who she is. And maybe she might have stayed Skye because only Cal insistted on calling her Daisy. Jiaying let her be who she wanted to be.

But she wasn't meant to have parents. Jiaying died, again, and Cal lost his memories, became a new person. She wasn't meant for that type of family, apparently.

But she can become the person they wanted her to be. She can be Daisy. Telling her name to T.A.H.I.T.I.'d Cal, it's... odd but good. She could be Daisy. She was *meant* to be Daisy. Daisy Johnson, daughter of Cal and Jiaying, from Milwaukee and Hunan Providence. America and China. Human and Inhuman. 

Over the months, she starts becoming more and more comfortable with the name, with the legacy her parents left behind. The people around her get more used to it. She's Agent Johnson, now. It feels slightly surreal. She has a birthday, a family name, now, but no parents. Everything's a trade-off, apparently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll write the Quake chapter once I can get s4 on dvd and finally watch it.


	5. Quake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gabe: Daisy, if that's your real name. 
> 
> Daisy: I've had a few. 
> 
> Gabe: Is one of them Quake?  
> ***
> 
> Daisy: I didn’t come up with it [Quake]. But it’s growing on me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fic Art: https://demisexualnathanvuornos.tumblr.com/post/169690614753/the-many-names-of-daisy-johnson-chapter-5-quake

When the newspapers start calling her 'Quake' (among other words, like 'menace', 'outlaw', 'terrorist'), she doesn't know how to feel about it. It's another name imposed on her. And it's *public*. She's not anymore the anonymous Skye No-Last-Name of Rising Tide. Or even the super secret Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Daisy Johnson. Now she's the Inhuman Quake, destroyer of bridges, robber of banks. People don't like her. Gabe wants her away from his brother, Robbie, because "She's not a good person." She saved his life, yet he goes by what the papers say. It's not that she doesn't deserve that. But it still hurts. No one understands. It's not who she wants to be. But maybe it is who she has to be now. And as far as code names go,It's actually not bad. She makes earthquakes. 'Quake' is kinda catchy.

But she doesn't want to be just Quake. She's not quite sure who is and will be next. Losing her family, both blood and chosen... She doesn't want to keep going through that. It's better if she just stays away. She has her own mission, that S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't and shouldn't be a part of. Its too busy with dealing with new bureaucracy to actually deal with all the violence against Inhumans. That's her job. It's her heritage. If she has to be Quake, this Inhuman terrorist, to get it done, she'll do it. 

***

When she rejoins S.H.I.E.L.D., when it seems like they might properly have the same goals again, she thinks she should leave Quake behind. The deeds connected to that name aren't *good*, even though they were necessary. But it's one of those things that is not up to her.

 _"My name is Daisy."_

_"Not according to the press release."_

Her name is not for her to choose. Again.


	6. Not Skye, Daisy (Framework)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Daisy continues to have identity and name issues and I continue having thoughts.

In the Framework, Daisy is still Skye.

She's not sure whether it is because at first it's said in the voice of nazi Grant 'Glad he's death' Ward, and then all these people at HYDRA use it, but it takes a while for her to get used to it again. It doesn't help that she doesn't understand who this 'Skye' is. How did she get to this point? How could she make these choices? 

Once she decided to accept and embrace Daisy Johnson, leaving 'Skye' behind was bittersweet. She chose Skye, it was one of her first bits of real agency. It was the name that allowed her to find her chosen family. Becoming Daisy ended up being surprisingly easy, with most of the people in her life adapting to the name change easily. It was really nice to have that.

Now she's in a new world, where she never found out the truth about her family, she's not inhuman, either. She's neither Daisy nor Quake. She's back to being just Skye. She's not sure who that is, anymore. Or who that could be, in this hellscape version of the world.

***

Getting her powers, her Quakeness, back feels good. Natural. She's back to properly fighting the good fight again, and switching names as the situation calls for is easier. She can be Skye when comforting Hope. She can get Coulson to remember her as Daisy. And Quake? She quaked Madame Hydra's ass straight out a window. 

She's had so many names and identities. She's a combination of them all, and she wouldn't be who she is without all of them. She might not have always had a choice about her names but she can decide how she feels about them. They are all *her*. Mary Sue, Skye, Daisy and Quake. Wonder who she'll be next?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fic Art: https://demisexualnathanvuornos.tumblr.com/post/170691930578/the-many-names-of-daisy-johnson-chapter-6-not


	7. Destroyer of Worlds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record, I've only watched up until 5x11 so this one is mostly about 5a.
> 
> Fic Art: https://demisexualnathanvuornos.tumblr.com/post/176267829058/the-many-names-of-daisy-johnson-chapter-7

Daisy has had a lot of feelings about her Quake powers. They were thrust and forced on her, she lost a friend, and people wanted to hurt her because of them. She was created to be a weapon for alien imperialists who wanted to eradicate her and people like her as nothing more than a failed experiment. She's had her powers called a disease, being who she is was used to make her hurt her friends.

But she's also been able to help people with her powers. She's connected with other inhumans, it brought her a legacy she wants to pass on. She took her power back gladly when it was taken from her, when she was once again called Skye again and her body was without terrigenesis. 

Over time, Daisy has learned to embrace her power, embrace Quake, the legacy of her parents, hero to some (probably still a villain to others). She had no idea all of that would lead to this. 

Destroyer of Worlds. 

Earth cracked open, shattered and she is to blame. She doesn't understand how that is possible, she doesn't *want* it to be possible. There has to be another explanation. She wants to save the world, not destroy it. It can't be her. She's not that powerful. That is not what being Quake means. That can't be her own legacy. 

Deke told all this to her like he was happy to have cracked the puzzle, found someone to blame. Deke doesn't understand her, how she could never be responsible for this, how she has to help her friends and how she's willing to do anything to help people. He twists everything about her, everything she wants Quake to stand for, and acts like he's finally found his boogieman, the destroyer of Earth. Someone to blame for all this. It can't be her. 

*** 

Kasius takes her blood, uses her like a blood bag (isn't that what she always is, to these world conquering assholes?) and calls her a fairy tale, a god of old. She wishes she had her strength, her powers, so she could destroy Kasius where he stands. She wants to stop him from saying her name, Daisy is from her parents, how dare he sully it like this? From him, she would rather hear 'Destroyer of Worlds'. Let him think she is someone capable of that. She would gladly destroy the world Kasius has created, make sure it never comes to pass. 

*** 

_Kasius: Dear friends, may I present to you Quake, the Destroyer of Worlds._

Once again, Daisy has been given a new title she did not ask for, that she does not want. When will she be given agency over her own existence? 

To these people, she's nothing but a spectacle, something to bargain over and use and abuse until she's done, until there's nothing left of her. She's not ashamed of her powers, but she doesn't want to perform like some animal in a zoo. She fucking hates the Kree. She's glad to destroy that blue bitch. 

*** 

The more she learns about what happened when the Earth cracked, seeing herself near the place where it happened, the seeming proof of her guilt, the more she starts feeling it would be better if she wasn't Quake at all. Or if she was, that she was Quake in the future. Where all of it already happened. Going back might be what dooms them all. She shouldn't do anything that might lead to this outcome they are currently living in. She has no idea how she could become so powerful as to achieve 12.8 on the Richter scale, but that doesn't mean she won't figure out how, in the present/past/future they are trying to get back to. 

Maybe her power inhibitor is a good thing. She can't destroy the Earth, can't be Quake, can't be Destroyer of Worlds, if she doesn't have the power that can do that. 

_Daisy: I'm just tired of these names. If I'm - If I'm not Quake, I can't be the Destroyer of Worlds. Maybe I should just be Daisy Johnson, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D._

Maybe she should just be Daisy Johnson from now on. She liked being an agent of SHIELD, leading her own small team, with or without powers. She went most of her life without them, she can't do it again. If it saves the world, the future, then it's a small price to pay. Hardly a price at all. She's much rather be just Daisy, rather than a superhero who apparently ended the world. 

Coulson doesn't let her stay in the future. He brings her back and now everything she does might lead to the end of the world. She's always looking for omens, staying as far away as she can from anything that might lead to the worst case scenario. But none of these things are ever quite up to her. 

*** 

She's been tortured, her powers given back to her without consent, mutinied against, she's losing friends and loved ones all the time. She is fucking tired. Now this Kree asshole wants to use her for his power games again, well, she's not going to let him. 

_Daisy: When I get out of this, I'm stronger than you know._

_Taryan: Everyone thinks that._

_Daisy 'Skye' Johnson: Mm. But in my case, it's true. I'm the Destroyer of Worlds._

She hates the title, but just like Quake, she might as well embrace it. If Destroyer of Worlds is who they want, then she will damn sure give it to them. She'll make them sorry they ever wanted her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will continue this if s6 has any more identity stuff for her.


End file.
